Trump Posts Photo of Italy’s PM Meloni “Gazing” at Him — Except Someone Changed Her Face
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On Sunday, July 5, President Trump posted a photo to Truth Social showing himself standing next to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the G7 summit in Evian, France. In the photo, Meloni appears to gaze up at Trump with wide, admiring eyes. Trump captioned it “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED,” and the post came during a spree in which he shared more than 100 things on Truth Social in about eight hours.
But Lead Stories traced the image back to a video from the same G7 summit, shot on June 16 and published by the Italian news outlet Agenzia Nova. In the video, European Council President António Costa walks up and says “You’re friends again.” Meloni replies “We have always been friends,” and Trump says “I was abandoned.” She laughs. The wide-eyed, upward-gazing look from Trump’s photo doesn’t appear anywhere in the footage, and Lead Stories confirmed the expression “cannot be found in the original video” and called it “the result of digital editing, perhaps including the use of AI enhancement.”
The original scene also included at least four other leaders — Costa, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Canadian PM Mark Carney, and Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi. Someone cropped them all out to make it look like Meloni and Trump were standing alone. And the meme didn’t start with the President — a parody account called @PapiTrumpo posted the same “restraining order” concept with a similar image on June 21, two weeks earlier.
The post came amid a bitter public feud between Trump and Meloni that started after Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni “begged” him for a photo at the G7. Meloni fired back in a video, calling his story “completely fabricated.” A reporter asked Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto about the “restraining order” post on Monday, and he said he had seen it. Both leaders had a NATO summit in Ankara on their schedules starting July 7 — two days after the post.
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Her expression doesn’t appear in the original video. Lead Stories matched the body positions in Trump’s photo to a G7 video published by Agenzia Nova. In the footage, Meloni is laughing and talking — the wide-eyed “gazing” look doesn’t appear anywhere.
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Four world leaders were cropped out. The original scene included António Costa, Friedrich Merz, Mark Carney, and Sanae Takaichi. Someone cut them all out so it looked like Meloni and Trump were standing alone together.
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The meme started somewhere else. A parody account called @PapiTrumpo posted the same “restraining order” concept with a similar image on June 21 — two weeks before Trump posted his version.
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The real exchange was friendly. In the video, Costa says “You’re friends again,” and Meloni replies “We have always been friends.” The altered expression and caption turned a warm moment into a suggestion that Meloni was obsessed with Trump.
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🚨 Digitally Edited — Expression Altered, Leaders Cropped Out
Someone cropped four world leaders from the G7 photo, digitally changed Meloni’s facial expression to look admiring, and added a “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED” caption. Lead Stories confirmed the expression “cannot be found in the original video” and called it “the result of digital editing, perhaps including the use of AI enhancement.” The President shared it with millions of followers two days before meeting Meloni face to face at NATO.
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Kyle Rittenhouse Posts AI-Made Photo With Lil Wayne — OpenAI Watermark Confirms It
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https://beehiiv-images-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/asset/file/f7e29980-d51b-4414-b41b-ec106370fe06/lilw.jpg?t=1783434335
On July 2, Kyle Rittenhouse posted a photo to X from his verified account showing what looked like Lil Wayne sitting on a couch next to him, and he captioned it “Enjoyed having Lil Wayne in the office yesterday!” Lead Stories ran the image through OpenAI’s verification tool and found it carried a SynthID watermark, confirming someone made it with OpenAI’s image tools. The post came out of a viral trend that started after Lil Wayne failed to show up for his concert in Bangor, Maine, on June 30 — businesses across the state began posting AI images of the rapper in fire trucks, pizza shops, and bowling alleys to joke about where he went instead, and Rittenhouse jumped on the trend. He later appeared to acknowledge the photo came from AI.
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Sacramento Nextdoor User Posts AI-Edited “Mountain Lion” — California Officials Say It’s a House Cat
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https://beehiiv-images-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/asset/file/8f525f0c-c857-407a-997e-139c96f33c21/catcatacat.png?t=1783434577
On June 30, someone on Nextdoor in the Lemon Hill neighborhood of Sacramento posted photos and videos claiming a home security camera caught a mountain lion near Fruitridge Road and Stockton Boulevard at 3:17 a.m. The post picked up more than 300 likes, 100 worried comments, and 200 shares before the California Department of Fish and Wildlife stepped in. Spokesperson Peter Tira called it an “AI-edited picture of a domestic house cat” and said “It’s fake.” Tira added that the department takes every mountain lion report seriously, but their human-wildlife conflict team spotted the fake right away — and by then, the neighborhood was already scared.
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YOUR REALITY DETECTOR TOOLKIT |
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Today’s Skill: Spotting a Photo Taken Out of Context
Most fake images start with a real photo — the trick is what got cut, cropped, or changed.
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Ask Who Else Was in the Room
In today’s story, someone cropped four world leaders out of the frame to make it look like Meloni and Trump were alone together. If a photo shows two people in what seems like a private moment at a public event, think about who else was probably standing nearby — and why you can’t see them.
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Search for Video of the Same Event
This still image came from a G7 summit that cameras filmed from every angle, and the video told a completely different story — Meloni was laughing, not gazing. If you see a dramatic photo from a big public event, search for video of the same moment on a news site before you share it.
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Ask What the Photo Wants You to Feel
This photo was built to make you think Meloni was staring at Trump with admiration — that reaction was the point. When a photo gives you a strong, specific feeling — outrage, amusement, vindication — that’s the moment to slow down and check it on a real news site first.
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